I understand that the word panhandler is a US term for beggar - or maybe it's more subtle than that. Where does this name come from? Did people used to hold out pans or is it to do with the gold-rush - panning for gold?

I also found out recently that the northern part of Florida is known as the panhandle - I assume because of the shape of the state.

It seems to be one of those words that might have been coined from a pun or metaphor. Somewhat like the UK radio show "My Word", I'm about to hypothesize an origin. If I'm right about it, I'll be delighted.

Homeless beggars in the US (and, I imagine, elsewhere) sometimes resort to jsut sitting up against a wall holding out whatever vessel -- hat, box, cup, or pan -- might attract spare change from a stream of passers-by. This image is similar enough to a prospector holding a pan in a stream to collect gold that the metaphor stuck.

Such a phenomenon (puns begetting words) is not so uncommon; think of colorful idioms like "stick-in-the-mud", "sticky wicket", or "needle in a haystack". Single-word examples include "spineless". Can anyone come up with any single-word idioms? I can't come up with any others "off the top of my head" (hehe...there's another one)

panhandler is one of those slang things whose origin is uncertain, but there is some evidence that it comes from the spanish word for bread, pan, slang for money -- which, at a minimum, all ties together to make a nice coincidence. There seems to be no connection between this and panning for gold or the panhandle shape of several of the states (Idaho, Texas, Oklahoma).

This is slightly off the subject, but: there is an NPR radio program here in the States called "Says You!," a sort of trivia contest-cum -"fictionary," produced by WGBH in Boston. We got it here for a month, as an experiment; unfortunately our local affiliate decided against running it after that month. It is a wonderful program linguaphiles are sure to enjoy. Check your local listings. I'm still E-mailing our affiliate to resume broadcasting it.

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